can't get anything to display on my JPanel

I'm writing this program to screw with my cousin, she's 15 and learning to drive and she drove a car her first time with me and was so excited and freaked out she was forgetting right and left. SO I'm writing this program to 'quiz' her on lefts and rights hehe.

Anyway, I laid everything out but no dice, nothing is showing up. I get the feeling I have a case of heavyweight vs. lightweight components on my hands, but if someone could point me toward the light I would be very grateful.

I'm pretty green when it comes to Swing so I've been coding a little at a time then compiling and getting it to display and moving on, so yea I do see that my buttons don't do anything ;) I'm just trying to see them first.

Code:

---

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.util.*;

public class BG extends JPanel
{ 
    Image image;
   
    public BG()
    {
       
        try
        {
            image = javax.imageio.ImageIO.read(new java.net.URL(getClass().getResource("bgImage.jpg"), "bgImage.jpg"));
        }
        catch (Exception e) { /*handled in paintComponent()*/ }
    }

    protected void paintComponent(Graphics g)
    {
       
        if (image != null)
            g.drawImage(image, 0,0,this.getWidth(),this.getHeight(),this);
    }
     
    public void prompt()
      { 
        GridLayout gridlayout1 = new GridLayout( 4, 3, 5, 5 );
        setLayout( gridlayout1 );
       

       
        add( new JLabel( "" )); //1,1
       
        JLabel intro = new JLabel( "Is it left or is it right?" );
            intro.setToolTipText( "Quit screwing around." );        //1,2
            intro.setHorizontalAlignment( SwingConstants.CENTER );
            add( intro );
           
        add( new JLabel( "" )); //1, 3
       
        add( new JLabel( "" ));  //2, 1
       
        Icon arrowFace = new ImageIcon( getClass().getResource( "question.png" ) ); //2,2
        JLabel arrow = new JLabel( arrowFace );
            add( arrow );
       
        add( new JLabel( "" )); //2,3
       
        add( new JLabel( "" )); //3,1
       
        JButton left = new JButton( "Left?" ); //3,2
            add( left );
       
        add( new JLabel( "" )); //3,3
       
        add( new JLabel( "" )); //4,1
       
        JButton right = new JButton( "Right?" ); //4,2
            add( right );
   
        Random genRandom = new Random();
        int direction = genRandom.nextInt( 1 );   
           
        Icon arrowRight = new ImageIcon( "arrowRight.png" );
        Icon arrowLeft = new ImageIcon( "arrowLeft.png" );
             
               
    }
}

---

Code:

---

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;

public class main
{
        public static void main( String args[] )
        {
                JFrame frame = new JFrame( "Left or Right??" );
                frame.setDefaultCloseOperation( JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE );
               
                BG backGround = new BG();
                frame.add( backGround );
                frame.setSize( 700, 700 );
                frame.setVisible( true );
               
        }
}

---

Add this at the top of your paintComponent override:

Code:

---

super.paintComponent(g);

---

Recommended reading:
Lesson: Performing Custom Painting (The Java™ Tutorials > Creating a GUI with JFC/Swing)

db

Thanks for the response, I added the call to superclass at the top of the paintcomponent method as such:

Code:

---

    protected void paintComponent( Graphics g )
    {
        super.paintComponent( g );
        if (image != null)
            g.drawImage(image, 0,0,this.getWidth(),this.getHeight(),this);
    }

---

But still get nothing but my background when I try running it. It's not the background I'm having trouble seeing, it's the JButtons and the JLabels I'm not seeing.

Don't do this

Code:

---

catch (Exception e) { /*handled in paintComponent()*/ }

---

The potential exception is neither displayed nor handled. It's just hidden.

You are probably getting a MalformedURLException on the line with

Code:

---

image = javax.imageio.ImageIO.read(new java.net.URL(getClass().getResource("bgImage.jpg"), "bgImage.jpg"));

---

You also seem to be creating some Icons that you do nothing with.

Does one ever do anything with Icons? They're just there for display. The left and right arrow icons are declared so that they can be plugged into the one that is being displayed, I only need one at a time.

The try and catch aren't my code, I found it and modified it for my use so I'm not completely clear on what it does. Is there an easier way to get the backgrounded painted on the screen? Class Image objects can't be instantiated directly, I've definitely been having some trouble getting the background image set.

Thanks for the suggestion though, I took the try and catch lines out and just left the 'image = ' line and sure enough there was a malformedURL caught by the compiler. Is this what's keeping everything else besides the background from being displayed?

The main reason nothing is displayed is because you create your interface in a prompt method which you never call.

I can't just have a button sit there? I want to get everything organized and looking the way I want before I start adding event handles, I can't do that?

We are no longer getting each other here. In my last post I talked about the method called prompt. You never call it but that is where you create the JLabels and add them to the JPanel. You need to call a method for the method's code to execute.
I suggest going through Sun's Java tutorial to understand the basics of Java before trying to write swing programs.

Aha, I see. I didn't understand what you said the first time. Nothing is displayed because I never call prompt() method.

You confused me with calling it an interface, I thought you were referring to the buttons and the lack of a listener interface being attached to them. Everything displays now, awesome, thank you.

And what were you getting at with the try statement? That was working perfectly fine, as I stated.

About the exception thing, just read my reply #4 again. try/catch should be used for exception handling not for exception hiding.